Session Information
99 ERC SES 03 P, Science and Environment Education
Paper Session
Contribution
In many countries, particularly in the French-speaking world, "education for" has developed during the 1980s: health education, citizenship education, sustainable development education...
This communication project proposes to focus on Education for Sustainable Development, which could be described today as a "global movement" (Pauw et.al, 2015).
It was as early as 1972 with the Stockholm conference that environmental issues became an international concern. In 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development proposing to achieve 17 Goals was signed by the 193 members of the UN.
Despite this international framework, national and local applications can evolve according to the pedagogical autonomy that teachers and headmasters can enjoy (Girault et.al., 2014).
This freedom can also be justified by the school-based form of this education, which differs from "classic" teaching by being based in particular on the acquisition of skills, values and attitudes (Barthes & Alpes, 2012)
If the objective is to train future conscious and responsible citizens, the question of sustainable careers arises : indeed, students must develop skills that "will guide their individual, personal and professional pathways" (Rieckmann, 2017). While it is difficult to estimate the emerging professions in the sector or to define a perimeter of professions labelled "sustainable development," works rather evoke the transformation of skills (Baghioni & Moncel, 2022) or the concordance of ethical values with one's career choice. (Di Fabio et.al, 2016)
In fact, finding its way path towards sustainable development does not only mean choosing a particular profession, but also taking into consideration ethical principles in one's professional aspirations. Indeed, we could be entering a new "guidance paradigm" that involves anticipating and preventing the ecological, social and economic impacts that a given choice of working life could generate (Guichard, 2016). Career choice would therefore represent a societal and even a global issue.
Schools, as key actors in the orientation and development of learning, are therefore asked to enter into a "global sustainable development approach" (Diemer, 2013). In addition to chapters in the school curriculum or the setting up of eco-delegates, some schools show their commitment by obtaining 'sustainable development' labels. In France, there are several labels, but one of the best known and most coveted is the E3D label (“Etablissement en Démarche de Développement Durable”), which implies taking sustainable development into account in the content and projects offered to students, but also in the management of the school itself (Chalmeau et.al, 2020). These establishments are therefore supposed to be in an important dynamic that should promote students' awareness and knowledge of global issues through the initiatives implemented in the name of sustainable development. Nevertheless, research shows that, overall, sustainable development is often addressed in a superficial manner in schools (Lange & Martinand, 2010).
Although we know that schools, particularly through their organisation, composition or pedagogical choices (Dumay & Dupriez, 2004), can have an effect on the cognitive skills of pupils, the question remains unclear as to their impact on the acquisition of sustainable skills by young people. We can therefore ask ourselves whether pupils in schools involved in a sustainable development approach will take sustainable development into account more in their choice of career path than pupils enrolled in an "ordinary" school. We can assume that individual characteristics such as gender or parents' qualifications will have an effect on awareness of these issues, but what about the school effect? Will exposure to education for sustainable development be enough to foster sustainable learning? And more importantly, beyond knowledge and familiarity with the issues, will students make sustainable development a new priority, a professional value?
Method
Our methodology for this work will be quantitative. We have constructed a questionnaire with a double objective: to measure the familiarity of students with sustainable development by asking them about their knowledge, values and practice. The second objective is to find out their professional aspirations and to estimate whether they plan to take sustainable development values into consideration in their future career choices. Many variables will enable us to make these observations: domestic practices, ability to define sustainable development, knowledge of global issues, but also their priorities in choosing a profession and the values they wish to include in their professional practice. We also chose to create "job" scenarios by proposing two job offers with different characteristics (salaries, social and ecological values) for six professions to better understand the students' priorities. We contacted the principals to present the issues at stake in the work, and they then distributed the questionnaire online in their schools. So far, 35 schools have responded. They are schools with quite varied profiles: rural, urban, vocational, general, with or without the E3D label... The questionnaire, which is currently being administered, currently counts 800 pupils and, given the estimates, we should reach a sample of 1,500 schoolchildren. The pupils surveyed are enrolled in schools with the E3D label or in ordinary schools. The purpose is to find out if there is a difference in the pupils' responses between these two types of schools. The sample consisted of students enrolled in secondary schools: in 3ème(10th), seconde(11th) and terminale(13th) in the Dijon academy. These levels are particularly interesting in the context of our work since they represent the main stages of orientation in France. Indeed, at the end of 3ème(10th), pupils must do a professional discovery course and also choose a lycée. Students in seconde(11th) must choose their specialities and students in terminale(13th) must choose a university course or go to work. For this work, we plan to rely on two quantitative methods: regression, which will allow us to study the effects of a variable (gender, parents' socio-professional category, etc.) on a target variable. As the data have a hierarchical structure, since pupils (level 1) are grouped in schools (level 2), multilevel analysis was also chosen as the second method for this article, as it is the most suitable for capturing the heterogeneity of relations between individuals and their environment (Bressoux, 2007).
Expected Outcomes
Regarding individual characteristics, several studies show that girls, raised in a privileged family context, with a high level of education and decent financial resources would tend to be more concerned by these issues, especially environmental ones (Coertjens et.al, 2010). Girls may therefore have more sustainable skills and values. As regards the school effect, if we know that young people are increasingly aware of these issues, particularly environmental ones, we assume that pupils benefiting from this education will have more "sustainable development" values and skills than those who are not confronted with it. Indeed, several studies show that exposure to activities/content related to sustainable development promotes a better knowledge of the concept and the adoption of eco-gestures (Lebatteux, 2010; Glomeron et.al, 2017). However, these effects must be qualified because they remain limited (significant results but weak effect, self-declaration of pupils, etc.). These limited results can be explained in particular by the fact that schools only address sustainable development in small steps in existing subjects and do not encourage critical thinking or reflection (Lange & Martinand, 2010). We therefore expect to see some effects, but only to a limited extent. The issue of sustainable development in terms of career aspirations has been dealt with very little. We can nevertheless expect a relatively small effect on the academic or professional orientation of students. Some students who are already aware and alerted (perhaps through the work of their family and friends) will be able to establish sustainable development as a professional priority. Nonetheless, there are many obstacles to orientation towards sustainable development (Rochat, 2021).
References
Baghioni, L. & Moncel, N. (2022). La transition écologique au travail : emploi et formation face au défi environnemental. Céreq Bref, 423, 1-4. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.57706/cereqbref-0423 Barthes, A., & Alpe, Y. (2012). Les éducations à, un changement de logique éducative ? L’exemple de l’éducation au développement durable à l’université. Spirale - Revue de recherches en éducation, 50(1), 197 209. https://doi.org/10.3406/spira.2012.1100 Boeve-de Pauw, J., Gericke, N., Olsson, D., & Berglund, T. (2015). The Effectiveness of Education for Sustainable Development. Sustainability, 2015, 15693 15717. https://doi.org/10.3390/su71115693 Bressoux, P. (2007). L’apport des modèles multiniveaux à la recherche en éducation. Éducation et didactique, 1 2, Art. 1 2. https://doi.org/10.4000/educationdidactique.168 Chalmeau, R., Julien, M.-P., Calvet, A., & Lena, J. (2020). French Sustainable Development Schools (E3Ds) to Promote Awareness and Commitment (p. 147 167). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46820-0_9 Coertjens, L., Boeve-de Pauw, J., De Maeyer, S., & Van Petegem, P. (2010). Do schools make a difference in their students’ environmental attitudes and awareness? Evidence from Pisa 2006. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 8(3), 497 522. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-010-9200-0 Di Fabio, A., & Bucci, O. (2016). Green Positive Guidance and Green Positive Life Counseling for Decent Work and Decent Lives : Some Empirical Results. Frontiers in Psychology, 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00261 Diemer, A. (2013). « L'éducation au développement durable, une affaire de représentation », Revue francophone du développement durable, n°1, p.30-58. Dumay, X., & Dupriez, V. (2004). Effet établissement : Effet de processus et/ou effet de composition ? https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00603490 Girault, Y., Zwang, A., & Jeziorski, A. (2014). Finalités et valeurs de différentes politiques d’éducation à la soutenabilité. Éducation relative à l’environnement, Volume 11. https://doi.org/10.4000/ere.698 Glomeron, F., Bois, E., Hugon, M., & Maguin, F. (2017). Citoyenneté et développement durable : Pratiques familiales et scolaires chez les adolescents. La revue internationale de l’éducation familiale, 41(1), 69. https://doi.org/10.3917/rief.041.0069 Guichard, J. (2016). Life-and working-design interventions for constructing a sustainable human(e) world. Studia Poradoznawcze/Journal of Counsellogy, 5, 179. Lange, J-M. & Martinand, J-L. (2010). Curriculum de l’EDD : principes de conception et d’élaboration », communication présentée au Colloque International Éducation au développement durable et à la biodiversité : concepts, questions vives, outils et pratiques, Montréal, 179-253. Rieckmann, M., Mindt, L., & Gardiner, S. (2017). « L’Education en vue des Objectifs de développement durable : Objectifs d’apprentissage. », UNESCO, https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000247507_fre Rochat, S. (2021). « Éco-orientation » : Quelles interventions pour quelles problématiques ? L’orientation scolaire et professionnelle, 50/4, Art. 50/4. https://doi.org/10.4000/osp.14894
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